Silenced Advani Has Spoken, Modi’s Damage Control Isn’t Adequate

Advani’s blog will certainly provide political ammunition to the opposition.

Photo: PTI

Lal Krishna Advani is not a man of few words. His autobiography, My Country, My Life runs into almost 1000 pages. Being a journalist in his early years, he has always enjoyed writing. A year after his memoirs were published—when leading the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections of 2009—he began blogging. This was a time when social media engagement and similar activity were unheard of in Indian politics.

He wrote in the preface of As I See It, a collection of his blogs, that when his younger colleagues (Prodyut Bora, @prodyut4assam and others) set up his personal website, he thought that a “blog is like a letter without a signature”.

Timing of Advani’s Decision to Break His Silence

Written barely two days before the BJP’s Foundation Day, when it enters its 40th year of formation, Advani’s blog, barely 500 odd words in length, is undoubtedly a letter. Despite being uncharacteristically short, the blog’s impact has been wide and profound. Although not addressed to anyone, it goes out to everyone committed to the original principles of the BJP. Undoubtedly, it creates an awkward situation for those at the party’s helm.

It would possibly be natural to expect liberals, currently facing the wrath of the present dispensation, to lay blame on Advani for mainstreaming what was considered an obscurantist ideology.

They possibly cannot be faulted for saying that the blog has emerged out of disgruntlement. After all, would Advani have written this one had he been nominated from Gandhinagar or elsewhere?

Even though the answer is no, the merit of Advani’s thoughts cannot be ignored. Instead of dismissing the nonagenarian leader’s powerful missive as the rant of the ‘original bigot’, it is wiser to assess the damage it does to the people who have denied him one last hurrah or at least opportunity to honourably hang his boots. It makes little sense to get trapped into debating whether Advani’s blog now qualifies him to be labelled a liberal or not.

Similar Fate Awaits Other BJP Leaders?

Denying him the pleasure of bidding goodbye to constituents honourably was cruel. Even when Advani refused to hand over the party's reins and relinquish the Leader of Opposition's post after the BJP's humiliating defeat in 2009, Mohan Bhagwat chose the personal route. Unlike now, the end of Advani's tenure was not announced by a press release.

Few in the BJP are likely to publicly air their sympathy for Advani, but there are numerous in the party who will now fear the same fate awaits them.

It is not for no reason that leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharati, and even Sumitra Mahajan have announced their decision of not contesting the Lok Sabha elections. In many ways they denied the Modi-Shah combine the right to pull the curtains on their illustrious careers.

Even at the zenith of his power and popularity, Advani was never known to stand up either for himself or his loyalists. For years considered to have a striking visual similarity with RK Laxman's 'common man', Advani almost lived the character's geniality and instead of responding in action, chose words to hit back. The only time when he made an exception to the rule was when he expounded on Hindutva.

Modi’s Patron Saint Turned Critic

Not many tears will be shed for the once-upon-a-time-strongman. Ironically, it was under his presidentship that a lanky bearded man was deputed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to the BJP. This was after he revived the practise of positioning Pracharaks or preachers following the hiatus during AB Vajpayee's tenure. His name: Narendra Damodardas Modi.

Advani was Moldi's patron saint both in initial years of his career in the BJP and most importantly, when Vajpayee attempted to secure Modi's resignation post 2002 riots.

His cardinal, error, however was not to make an exit when Modi displayed his ambition for the top spot.

Cordiality between the two evaporated in September 2011 when Advani wanted his nationwide Jan Chetna Yatra to pass through Gujarat after Modi had already embarked on his Sadbhavna Mission. This programme was the vehicle for Modi to declare his aspiration of being BJP's prime ministerial nominee. Many felt that Advani, like others in the margdarshak mandal, overstayed his welcome. After all, there had been a generational change in the RSS with Bhagwat also taking over as sarsanghchalak in March 2009.

Advani’s Blog Chastises Modi-Shah Duo

Notwithstanding his failings, the issues raised by Advani are extremely valid and significant. These will resonate among those uneasy with the ruthlessness that is now part of the BJP's culture. His blog will not sound pleasant to Modi and his loyalists within the sangh parivar.

Advani's assertion that the “essence of Indian democracy is respect for diversity and freedom of expression” serves as a reminder to what is missing in the party. In today's BJP, such expressions are anathema and if anyone uses them, they are promptly clubbed as part of the “tukde-tukde gang”.

Without taking names, Advani reminded the presiding duo that it is against the party culture to paint those disagreeing with its views as “anti-national”.

Additionally, he recapped that “defence of democracy and democratic traditions” has been the party's hallmark and that transparency in “electoral funding” has been the party's priority for long.

Only the uninitiated or the totally partisan, would argue that these are anything but messages to Modi and Amit Shah. These are expressions of disapproval with the way the duo manage the party.

Modi’s Damage Control Is Inadequate

Realising that Advani’s bog could not have come at a more inopportune time than on the eve of the Foundation Day event, Modi has tried to co-opt the blog in his narrative by sharing the link to it and highlighting the portion in the blog about the “guiding Mantra of ‘Nation First, Party Next, Self Last’”. He thinks this tactic may dilute the impact of the damaging bits in the Advani blog.

For the past few years, Advani has hardly spoken. Even in Parliament, which he continued attending regularly—92.21 percent attendance—he has hardly spoken. Just 365 words and has not uttered a word in the House since December 2014. But when words came out, albeit from his pen, the impact has been significant.

Advani's blog will certainly provide political ammunition to the opposition. Just as Modi selectively highlighted the part least damaging to him, there is no stopping his opponents from projecting select portions which underscore that the BJP under Modi has strayed from core Indian political values.

With his blog, Advani has possibly laid the ground for a future non-BJP government to find virtues in him just as the BJP under Modi overnight discovered the intrinsic worth of PV Narasimha Rao. But by then, neither of the two may be around. Indian politics is never short of melodrama and paradox.

(The writer is an author and journalist based in Delhi. His most recent books are ‘Sikhs: The Untold Agony of 1984’ and ‘Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times’. He can be reached at @NilanjanUdwin. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)